Price of Blood
by Sail the Ocean
Summary: Sakura Haruno, Captain of an elite team of shinobi and highly respected kunoichi is forced to return from her three year mission to collect and kill Akatsuki members. While recovering in the hospital she sees someone she had lost hope on ever seeing again. Team seven, along with her own team are sent on a mission. Will they finally see her for the capable shinobi she really is?
1. Unexpected Events

_**Price of Blood**_

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO****.**

_Chapter One: _**Unexpected Events**

"**Target is moving, closing in." ** A charming feminine voice whispered, hoping her communicator wasn't being spotty again as she pulled on her black leather chakra channeling gloves and lowered her porcelain mask, painted in the image of a beautiful Geisha. Viridian green eyes peering through the veiled lacy fabrics that covered the eyeholes as she watched the shadowy figure run through her line of vision, three others followed.

All adorning the red and black clouds of Akatsuki.  
Lovely.

She curled her long slender fingers around the branch above her, using it as grip as she gracefully flung myself from the branch she was currently crouched upon and propelling herself into the air, as soon as her feet touched the ground she had disappeared in a blur, her chakra signature disappearing without a trace.

Mist filled the area as she expertly cast a jutsu, luckily her team and herself were close to Amegakure that area was quite humid, intensifying the already thick fog wasn't a difficult task whatsoever, especially for a genjustu specialist.

The only noise heard through the dense forest was the light chiming of bells from Akatsuki hats.

**XXXXX**__

"Does Lady Haruno seems more on edge than usual, or is it just me?" Tsuchi whispered to his partner, Momichi as they watched their team captain disappear in a blur, which didn't phase them much, they were used to her impressive speed, in fact, it was one of the main bits of information on her profile in the bingo books.

Momichi shrugged, moonlight glinting off of his frog painted porcelain mask, "She's always on edge. Ninja, remember?" he groaned in annoyance, wishing his partner would just shut up already, if they compromise the mission because Tsuchi couldn't keep his mouth shut Lady Haruno would cut of their asses and hand it to them.

"Well yeah, I know… it's just, our training seems more silent than usual." Tsuchi pouted, it really didn't bother him much, out of everyone on the team he was probably the only one who spoke a sentence without being forced to. He was on a team with the most elite ninja Konoha had to offer, but damn their captain was such a hardass. She certainly made them work to stay on the team, it sucked sometimes but _damn_ it paid good.

"Have you ever heard her speak more than three words outside of a mission? It's normal, now shut up before you draw attention to us, idiot." Momichi snapped, having enough with his stupid partners talking, he watched his post as he was told to do, holding his hands in a perfect Tiger seal, keeping the barrier he was instructed to place around the area up, it was his specialty. Probably the only reason he was accepted for this team, he was a specialist with defensive barriers, undetectable, extremely hard to break. His partner, Tsuchi was a combat specialist, and while he was more impressive in his line of work, he was a loud mouth and Momichi often lost his temper at the younger shinobi.

A loud buzzing noise echoed in Tsuchi's ear and he cringed slightly, before his face became grimly serious, "Lady Haruno's communicator is out of range, try contacting Tora and Genma."

Momichi sighed and turned to his partner with an annoyed, borderline disappointed look on his face, although hidden beneath his mask, "Tsuchi, my hands are a little full right now trying to keep this barrier up, would you mind?" He snapped, making Tsuchi grumble begrudgingly as he picked up the router for their communicators, adjusting the channel to try and contact his other team members.

A loud, splitting scream echoed through the forest, catching the attention of the combat specialist as he realized he'd lost connection with his teammates, Momichi heard it as well, but nearly ten years the senior of his partner, he didn't even flinch at the scream. He couldn't afford to lose focus.

"Tsuchi, go and check on Tora and Genma, Izaya and Choji can take care of themselves." Momichi spoke, his voice even although his chest constricted with worry for his comrades.

Tsuchi nodded and with a simple hand seal disappeared without a trace.

**XXXXX**

"You can stop shadowing us, I know you're there." A light, calm voice came from behind the masked pinkette, her pink hair covered by a long black veil that flowed from the back of her mask, to his her identity. The corner of her lip twitched downward into somewhat of a frown from beneath her mask. "It's been a while, Itachi."

The older Uchiha nodded, his crimson gauze stuck on the slender figure without a name or face, He'd never been able to recognize her, although it was obvious she was a woman, but her very feminine curves that were revealed by her snug white chest armor and tight black pants, and her oddly melodic voice, although every aspect that would set her side from others was hidden, even her hair color was a mystery.

The only way he could recognize her was the Geisha mask she wore, it's distinct coloring was completely in black and white, an eerie view considered traditional Geisha's wore colorful eye makeup and adorned dark crimson lip wear, the mask itself was a polished porcelain, with basic facial features any person would have, but the lips were a stark black, not curled into a smile nor frown, the eyes were a dark lace material that he assumed she could see through, a long black veil. She always carried the floral smell of cherry blossoms.

In an instant she disappeared in a pop, and Itachi felt the cool metal of a kunai at the base of his spine. Itachi too disappeared in a cloud, shadow clone.

"You never cease to impress, kunoichi." A smooth baritone voice came from one of the far off branches of a tree, the masked Kunoichi's emerald eyes flickered to him from her own perch, only twelve meters away from her target. Her delicate fingers curled around a scroll at the small of her back.

Her hands flickered with impossibly fast hand seals. Dragon. Tiger. Dog. Bird.

Her massive Zanbato made it's appearance, and Itachi eyed the sword with mild fascination that much a small creature as this woman could yield it, it looked to be the same, if not larger in size than his partner, Kisame's, own Samehada. He'd yet to see it, but the others she's attacked in the Akatsuki, the ones that managed to escape anyway, said she yielded it more than extraordinarily.

A smirk appeared on the sharringan yielders lips as he watched her stand from her crouch and brace the large blade of the sword on her shoulder, he could feel her eyes that were hidden beneath the mask blazing into him.

"I'm flattered." He spoke, watching her arm straighten as he held out the sword, her melodic voice turning low and dark, full of authority, almost making the dark haired man want to listen to her.

"Uchiha Itachi, prepare for your immediate capture."

As she disappeared Itachi's keen senses caught her exact movements, as he ducked away from the swipe of her sword, a kunai that had once been hidden within the folds of his robe now in his hand and with effort keeping the massive blade at bay, although she was inhumanly fast, even for a shinobi.

"You are certainly a formidable opponent, but I cannot allow you to kill me." He spoke calmly as he disappeared in a cloud of ravens, the masked kunoichi snarled as her gloved hands flew into motion, tracing the trail of his transportation jutsu before it got cold.

Just when a piercing scream echoed through the forest, she paused as she was just about to complete the jutsu, she groaned and tried her communicator, getting static, seeming that she's gone out of range she offered a single glance at the place her Akatsuki target once stood.

She told her team that if they fell behind, she would leave them… but, she would never abandon a comrade.

A swirl of pink petals was all that was left in place of the mysterious kunoichi.

**XXXXX**

"Something wrong, dickless?" an inky haired teen questioned the blonde beside him, who wasn't disgustingly stuffing his face with the less than healthy cuisine of this ramen stand as the ex ROOT member was accustomed to seeing him do.

"I just miss Sakura-Chan." The blonde grumbled his stomach not full, but how was he supposed to eat? He hadn't seen Sakura-Chan in nearly three years since she left with that- team or whatever. Hell, he didn't even get to see her _when she was here_, always in the interrogation unit, the hospital, or training new blackops.

Sai, who nodded but didn't make much of a task of speaking more, stared down into his bowl of miso, losing his appetite as well. Although he didn't voice it such as his teammate, he missed his aggressive comrade with monstrous strength and temper.

"She's a shinobi, she gets missions Naruto." A smooth, masculine voice spoke from the other side of the blonde, his spiky black hair now reaching his shoulders, which belonged to none other than Sasuke Uchiha.

The blonde didn't seem to perk up, his stomach even seemed to lodge itself in his throat as he guiltily thought back to the fight he and the pinkette had gotten into right before she threw herself into her work…. Now she was captain of some secrete team of elites or whatever, he missed the old Sakura-Chan…

"It is quite surprising ugly has surpassed the both of you." Sai spoke calmly, taking a sip of his tea as if nothing was wrong.

"Hey!" Naruto spat, "She's ahead of you too!" He protested, shoving a finger in the direction of the sickly pale artist, who just swatted his hand away calmly with that stupid fake smile of his, "because I'm a Jonin and both of you are still Chunin." He spoke in an almost mocking voice; Sai was becoming more used to banter and emotions.

The usually stoic Uchiha shot a dark glare to the artist, and trust me, if looks could kill, Sai would be lying on the ground right now without a breath in him.

"That's not fair! Sasuke-teme's on probation and I'm stuck in the village for another two years." Naruto grumbled annoyed, and although it was nearly an empty excuse it was actually true Baa-Chan had been working him to the bone with training on how to become a suitable hokage, and the elders won't let him leave for a damn mission…

"Whatever dickless, I'm sure-"Sai started, but the oncoming chakra signature made each of them freeze and turn their heads right at the moment a head of silver gravity-defying hair appeared before him, but the aura was serious and tight, and the instant he appeared Naruto jumped up from his seat, Sasuke had joined him as Kakashi didn't even bother with a greeting.

"Sakura's team is at the hospital; Lady Hokage demanded your appearance, all of team seven."

**XXXXX**

"Damn it, Shizune!" Tsunade snarled as she continued healing her apprentice, blood was spilling everywhere; her intestines barley in her chest, hell, Sakura was practically holding them in with her hands when she showed up, before she passed out from blood loss.

Shizune continued to push chakra into her friend and fellow apprentice's system, more focused on repairing a punctured lung while she pushed water out from her bronchial tubes to keep her from drowning in her own blood, literally.

"We need an IV of adrenaline, her heartbeat is slowing!" Tsunade shouted over the chaos of nurses and medics scrambling around the room, in mere seconds a dark haired nurse came and began expertly hooking Sakura up to the IV, her heartbeat began speeding almost immediately, and she began moving.

"Lady Tsunade- what if she wakes up?" Shizune questioned as she began healing Sakura's shattered rib cage, her hazelnut eyes watering with tears at the state of the young woman before her, it appeared as if she was thrown into a blender.

"There's no possible way she could wake up in this condition Shizune," Tsunade spoke, for the first time in a very, very long time Shizune saw tears glistening in her honey colored depths, "Wait- her chakra, its-"

A porcelain hand shot up and grasped Tsunade's wrist, emerald eyes showing as they shot open, they looked panicked for a moment, and then they squeezed shut, and she cried out in pain, Shizune's heart nearly broke at the sound of her cries of pain, and attempted to put her to sleep with a jutsu, but the second her hand went to touch her forehead, Sakura slapped it away, forcing herself to sit upwards and nearly tearing open every one of her wounds.

"Itachi… he-gah- got away." The pinkette rasped as several nurses came by and tried to hold the pinkette down, even lady Tsunade tried, and failed miserably, Sakura resorted to scratching and biting at anyone who even dared bring their hands close to her, as the pinkette's hands began glowing with an intense green glow as she began healing herself.

The wounds closed in mere seconds and Shizune stood there astounded, and a bit jealous that it took both Lady Tsunade and herself to heal her when it took the young pinkette one moment to do it all herself, Tsunade also seemed quite amazed because she didn't seem to notice that Sakura had pulled the IV out of her in one harsh tug and began removing wires from herself as she leapt of the bed.

"Where's Tora?" She spoke, turning to face the blonde haired hokage who now wore a grim look on her face, but also a strange kind of pride and adoration with her apprentice.

"Sakura, you shouldn't be-" Shizune began, worry for someone she had worked with, Sakura was like a sister to her and she would be devastated with her being injured, and the new attitude began to startle her a bit.

"She's fine, you took the attack full frontally, she wasn't even scratched." Tsunade spoke oddly coldly, crossing her arms over her massive bosom; Shizune couldn't tell who was confusing her more, her mentor or her friend.

"What the hell made you want to do something like that Sakura?" Tsunade voiced somewhat shaking, like she was one the verge of tears but was holding it back, Shizune observed. The brown haired apprentice wouldn't be surprised; Lady Tsunade wasn't one to cry unless backed into a corner.

"I was protecting a comrade." Sakura nodded, her voice hard and authority filled, so much so that even Tsunade couldn't scramble for a word to find, She had already gotten the mission report from Genma, claiming that one of their comrades, Tora, had been attacked by a masked Akatsuki member, Kakuzu, who attempted to kill Tora but right before the attack hit her Sakura pushed her from the way, absorbing an attack that would have killed any other shinobi on the spot.

Tsunade placed a hand on the pinkette's shoulder, who raised her viridian eyes to her ex Shishou and offered a nod of appreciation and respect for the woman before her, the Hokage's heart swelled with pride, she had certainly raised a wonderful shinobi. "You're going to have to stay here a bit longer so we can monitor your body."

"Hai," Sakura nodded, taking a seat on the edge of the hospital bed, eyeing her form, her entire chest was able to be seen, her only modestly was saved by the bindings that were wrapped tightly around her breasts and her tight spandex pants, her kunai pouch and weapon scroll still on her thigh.

A blonde nurse entered the room just as some of the other medics began retreating after offering their best wishes to the pinkette, as most of them had once trained under her supervision. Tsunade's sharp eyes buried themselves in the young woman and Sakura could actually see the young girl flinch, must be new here.

"Um… T-there are visitors here for Miss Haruno." She spoke timidly, her chocolate colored eyes on her feet, too scared to look back into the piercing gaze of Tsunade.

"Send them in." Sakura spoke finally, Tsunade nodded and opened the room, allowing the four males to enter the room, although as the last one entered, Sakura's breath caught in her throat…

It was Sasuke.

**XXXXX**

The group of males entered the hospital while it was in a state of chaos, it was almost dead silent on the first level lobby, and when they approached the secretary the young blonde woman looked almost horrified.

"We're here to see Sakura-Chan!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, his heart beating in a frenzy, face cherry red with worry, he looked like he was about to feint from anxiety, Kakashi took the time to smack him on the back of the head and tell him to calm down, but he wasn't in the best state either after the state Genma told her she was in.

The Uchiha and Sai remained silent as they trailed behind the blonde and silver haired men to the elevator, Sasuke's mouth drawn into a hard line, he hasn't seen Sakura in nearly six years, back when she was a mere sixteen.

They were adults now, how much has she changed? From how little Naruto talks about her and how edgy he is about the subject there must have been some kind of big change… Now she's apparently ahead of Naruto, who himself is strong, even if Sasuke had to sluggishly admit it.

The hallway was a scattering of nurses, and they had to push and shove to make their way to a stairwell that lead to the second wing for the emergency units. It seemed that there were still doctors coming in and out of the room, a dark haired nurse pushed past us carrying an IV bag, Naruto tried to stop her to ask her if Sakura was alright but she didn't even turn to look at him.

"Over here!" Someone shouted, and Naruto disappeared running toward the voice in a blind panic, knocking over several people in the process, Kakashi face palmed annoyed with his old student and calmly began pushing through the crowds, his other two students following behind him in less of a fury.

Naruto reached a group of ninja, each adorning the same uniform, a white armor and long sleeved black shirts beneath, as well as black Jonin pants, each of them had a porcelain mask either hanging around their neck or pushed back to rest on the top of their head, a brown haired female looked pretty scared and the three males beside her looked in quite a panic, Sasuke remembered one of them as the man from the first Chunin exams, his name was…. Genma or something like that.

"How is she?" Genma asked, his eyes which were usually bored and his demeanor of calmness was shattered, he was even missing the senbon he usually had resting on the side of his mouth.

"We don't know yet, there are too many damn people." Kakashi sighed, running a hand through his spiky silver locks, his visible eye showing worry for his female student.

The brown haired woman's eyes filled with tears and her face collapsed into her hands, a man with deep oceanic blue hair who was sitting beside her patted her softly on the back, "It's _all my fault_ Lady Haruno is here! Kami if I wasn't so useless…" She sobbed painfully, her shoulders rising and falling as she continued to cry.

"What- what happened to Sakura-Chan?" Naruto spoke, beginning to panic by the looks on the faces something was clearly wrong, and Naruto could sense it, his oceanic eyes began sparkling with tears.

An older man to the side heaved a sigh, his graying brown hair in high spikes, he looked a bit older than Kakashi himself, but as he stood to shake their hands he was nearly eight feet tall, a monster of a man whose muscles looked nearly the size of someone's head! He looked like a human wall.

"I'm Momichi, Lady Haruno is our team captain." He spoke, his voice gruff and gravelly as he addressed the four, before he began to point at his comrades, the one with the bluish hair and green eyes was known as Tsuchi, The brown haired woman who was still sobbing was known as Tora, and the other was already known by Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi.

"Lady Haruno was pursuing our target when she lost communication, we were always telling her to get the damn thing fixed… Tora was being attacked and was about to be killed by an incredibly powerful lightning jutsu, Lady Haruno appeared just moments after Tsuchi and myself and she shielded Tora from the attack, pushing her from the way, but she didn't have time to counter the attacked and ended up absorbing the full brunt of it, although her lightning chakra nature helped, her guts were practically falling out of her and she managed to fight off the secondary target and his partner, her chakra was too low to heal herself after the fight, and she refused to allow the nearby village to heal her, so we walked back to Konoha, she demanded we allow her to do it herself as well… so we traveled three days straight and… well, here we are." He spoke, and by the end of the explanation Kakashi's eyes were nearly bulging out of his head, he hadn't heard the part of her story where she was falling apart; he gave Genma a cold glare, who didn't seem to notice at the moment.

Naruto's hands shook slightly as his blonde bangs fell over his eyes, Sasuke sensed the rising anger in himself as well, how could she be so stupid? Denying medical help due to some kind of pride…

Sai remained silent although he felt a strange feeling in his chest hearing how badly his comrade had been hurt, aside from the horrendous nickname and playful banter, she was one of his first friends, one of the first people to see him as something besides a Sasuke replacement, she even helped him work on his emotions, she was one of the only people who could pull a genuine smile out of him.

Just when Naruto opened his mouth to no doubt say something stupid, Sasuke noticed the blonde secretary from earlier approaching them, her hands slightly shaking, she looked more nervous than she had when the group had first approached her.

"F-follow me." She said timidly, the group of men didn't need to be told twice to follow her.

She lead the group to the end of the hallway where doctors were hastily leaving the room until it was empty, the Hokage and her brown haired assistant appeared in the doorway and with a definite nod as greeting appeared down the hallway, the nervous looking brunette following behind her.

Naruto was first to enter, then Kakashi, Sai… and finally, himself, oddly enough his hands were quite clammy.

The second his eyes met hers… they widened, as did her own, the breath wrenched from their own lungs in unison, his, because she had grown breath taxingly beautiful and the only thing covering her was a few scraps of wrappings around her ample chest and her tight spandex pants that didn't leave much to the imagination. Her hair had grown long, just a bit above her hips and her eyes a sharper, darker green.

Her breath left her because… well, he was _here._

"Sasuke?"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o 0o**

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Reviews please.  
I'll update soon

**-TobiIsMyName**


	2. Biting Bullets

_**Price of Blood**_

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO****.**

_Chapter Two: Biting Bullets_

"**Sasuke?" **Her voice came out in almost a whisper, her viridian green eyes scrunching in confusion as they roved over Kakashi and Naruto, almost silently questioning them with her look, but Naruto had already engulfed her in a painful hug.

Just as she opened her mouth to ask what the hell was going on two figures burst into the door, followed by four more, and at that moment Naruto was thrown across the room by Tora who took over his place by wrapping her arms around her pink-haired captain.

The pinkette sighed and patted the woman on the shoulder, "It's alright Tora." She tried to comfort, although she wasn't very good at doing that either anymore. She hadn't been much of the talker the past few years.

"I'm so sorry! Kami I didn't mean to freeze up like that!" The brown haired woman sobbed loudly, Sakura gently pushed her back and placed a hand sternly on her shoulder, viridian eyes meeting chocolate brown teary eyes, "Tora, you're my comrade, I will protect you with my life." She nodded, watching the brown haired woman stiffen and wipe her eyes.

Kakashi's heart swelled slightly as he looked at his former student, who had by far outranked him many years before, but that didn't discourage him from pushing past her teammates and ruffling her long pink locks with one of his famous eye-crinkle smiles.

"Lady Haruno." The two men still adorning their masks spoke before dropping to a knee, as the rest of the team did, Naruto wandered what the hell they were doing on the floor and why they were calling them that, as well as Sai. Kakashi knew why they respected her so highly, and if he wasn't in fear of making everyone in the room uncomfortable, he would have done the same. Sasuke was too confused by the awkwardness of the situation to think straight.

Sakura stood and brushed herself off, not concerned with her indecent appearance as she addressed her team with a nod, to which Tsuchi answered, "Lady Haruno, we compromised the mission with our incompetence." He spoke lowly, green eyes swimming with shame.

"You did." Sakura spoke sternly, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared down at her team, "But nonetheless, you did well. Choji, Izaya, Tsuchi, Momichi, and Tora, each of you will do one thousand laps around the village, now." She said, without argument or even a resentful look, they disappeared. Kakashi could almost swear he saw a smile on their faces.

"Wow Sakura-Chan, isn't that a little harsh?" The blonde spoke, staring at her with wide eyes, beyond confused with the scene that had just played before his very eyes. It was a side of Sakura he had never seen, a stern, authority figure; she was even scarier than baa-Chan when she had too much to drink!

Sakura's sharp glare flickered to Naruto in a way he had only seen her look at him once, during that fight right before she threw herself into her work, he inwardly cringed at the sheer anger showing in her eyes even if her face showed nothing, "I wouldn't ask my team to do anything I couldn't do." Her tone was professional, cold, a way that made him almost sick to the stomach.

"Now, would anyone mind to tell my how the hell Sasuke is here?" She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and peering at the three men she was most comfortable with, Sai, Kakashi and Naruto.

Sai was first to step forward, "Traitor came back with his team, Hideous, Fishman, and Queer." He nodded, and Sasuke's eyebrows flinched at the nickname he had been given by the atrociously annoying artist, Sasuke had never liked Sai, feeling him to be somewhat of a replacement of himself.

"I see." Sakura spoke indifferently with a sigh. Naruto still a little upset Sakura was mad at him, and Sasuke stunned by her nonchalant behavior, expecting her to throw herself at him or something, but her entire aura was different from the annoying, clingy attitude, now a more collected and authority aura.

Kakashi, whom had actually seen her around much more than the other teammates had seen here be stern with her team many times before, although she had a sort of motherly affection to them, they looked up to here, and were prepared to jump in front of a kunai for her, and as she proved today, as was she.

"Sakura?" A knock came to the door and Shizune appeared in the doorway, looking a bit annoyed as she held a scroll in her hands, Sakura and Kakashi recognized the design on the side immediately but said nothing.

"Come in." Sakura's monotone voice echoed through the spacious hospital room, looking over to her teammates as Shizune entered. Her cheeks flushed in anger as she shooed the other men out of the room.

As soon as the other members of her team had been excused Sakura turned to the brown haired woman before her, noting that her hair had grown out and now slid a bit past her shoulders, it looked nice.

"A mission report already?" Sakura questioned, noticing how Shizune begrudgingly nodded.

"But not just for your team- Team seven will accompany you."

**XXXXX**

Naruto's shoulders slumped as he shoved his hands into his pockets, walking beside Sasuke and Kakashi through the darkened streets of Konoha, only lit up with red and yellow lanterns. "Why is Sakura so… different?" The blonde sighed.

Sasuke shrugged, and Kakashi watched his former students with a look of disapproval in his eyes, "Sakura was belittled her entire life. Of course she'd change." He said, guilt lacing in his words because he himself was surprised when Sakura was accepted by the Hokage as an apprentice, let alone everything else she had achieved.

"Sakura had parents to support her." Sasuke bit in, annoyed by the whole situation and not watching his words, he almost regretted the words after they were spoken.

Kakashi paused, slowly turning to the dark haired Uchiha with an incredulous look on his face, noticing that Kakashi had snapped his book shut with a loud snap Naruto stopped walking. Kakashi then did something neither Naruto or Sasuke had ever seen him do. Nor any other male, on the face of the Earth.

He slapped Sasuke.

"Kakashi-sensei! What the hell!" Naruto shouted, looking as Sasuke who was now picking himself up from the ground, a hand on his cheek as he looked at Kakashi with such contempt Naruto believed if Sasuke wasn't so shocked that he would have straight lunged for the silver haired ANBU member.

"Are you an idiot?" Kakashi snapped, his voice at a level Naruto had never heard the man use before. Sasuke even paused at the positively enraged voice of his former teacher.

"Kakashi-Sensei! I know teme wasn't thinking but what the hell! Why did you do that?" Naruto snapped, now out of his wallowing fit over Sakura snapping at him. Kakashi took a deep breath to calm himself.

"You don't know either, do you?" He questioned the blonde, who simply gave the older man an odd look before he began to continue, "Sakura's parents live in Iwagakure." He spoke lowly, annoyed at the looks the two boys gave him.

"Wha- Then why doesn't she live here?" Naruto questioned, truly confused, I mean- he had never seen Sakura's parents, he just assumed that he missed them or whatever, but now that he'd thought about it- whenever Sakura was in the hospital badly injured as a genin he had never seen her parents there either.

"They sold her."

The two men froze, Sasuke's anger forgotten and Naruto's heart seemed to stop.

"How could they just sell her?" Naruto spoke, voice gruff and rasped as crushing guilt washed over him, he had never bothered to learn much about Sakura. She'd never talked about having parents… He couldn't even remember her parents being there during graduation, he didn't make anything of it at the time- but, now he understood, he never really knew Sakura.

"In Iwa it is legal for parents to sell their children through slave trade, they just happened to sell her to a man whom was passing through to bring goods there from Konoha, he picked her up and brought her to an orphanage here." Kakashi finished, thoroughly disappointed with his students.

Naruto's eyes filled with tears and Sasuke just couldn't find words to speak.

"Why did you think you three were put on a team?" Kakashi sighed.

"Because- they put the two top scoring students with the bottom." Sasuke finished, hoping that was the right answer, because to be honest, now that he thought about it, He remembered seeing Sakura quite a few times as a child as he walked through the streets with his own parents, always by herself.

"No. They put you on teams by how much you have in common. So it's easier to develop a closeness to your teammates. Haven't you noticed? Kiba, Shino, Hinata…" Kakashi trailed off as Naruto finished the sentence with 'Are all in clans, yet have one parent.'

"Yes. Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji all have both parents and are from a clan as well. You, Sakura, and Sasuke were put on a team because you are all orphans." Kakashi spoke lowly, calming himself, knowing he had no place to judge his students because while Kakashi knew of Sakura's troubled past from the day she was assigned to his team, he belittled her as well by focusing more on Sasuke and Naruto during training, pushing her away from their team altogether.

"What happened to her?" Sasuke questioned as the three entered a pub, sitting at the bar, Naruto sitting between Sasuke and Kakashi in case either of them decided to stab each other or something, and after a shot to the pride, Sasuke was contemplating it.

Kakashi ordered some sake and pulled a small black book from his pocket; Naruto immediately remembered it and gave him a shocked look. "Sakura's in the bingo book?" The blonde questioned incredulously.

Kakashi flipped the age-worn book open, and Naruto nearly feinted that she was the second page of the book- right behind Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke, who was trying to act like he didn't want part in the conversation whatsoever turned his head to read over Naruto's shoulder.

**Name: Sakura Haruno**

Status: Living

Affiliation: Konohagakure

Profile: Pink hair, Green eyes, Caucasian. 

**Shinobi Title: Special Ops.**

Combat type: Long range, Short range, Mid range.

Known Abilities: Medical Ninjutsu, Genjustu specialist, Weapon Specialist, Multiple lightning based offensive jutsu, Multiple water based offensive jutsu.

Bounty: 750,000 ryo.

Naruto flinched at the price on his pink-haired teammate and friend's head. Snapping the book shut and pushing it towards his former sensei who was slowly sipping his drink, Naruto himself ordered a beer to help deal with this overload of information.

Sasuke was baffled by the price over her head, nearly 400,000 ryo more than the price over his brother's head. More so that she could perform lightning and water based jutsu, usually they weren't compatible with each other, lightning worked with fire and water with earth, usually not together. But it was more than clear that she made it work, Iwa was known for multiple lightning based jutsu. He was still annoyed that the fact that Sakura was orphaned as well and it completely slipped his mind.

Kakashi eyed his students from the corner of his eye, the fabrics of his mask making his drink less enjoyable, or perhaps it was just his foul mood. "You know, I was referred by Genma for Sakura's elite team." He spoke up.

Naruto turned to his silver haired sensei, his brows knitted together in confusion. "Why didn't you do it?"

"Lady Hokage didn't believe I had the right qualifications, and it was true. Sakura's team is handpicked from the best shinobi the village had to offer. Most were ANBU captains at one point." He spoke, sipping on the small cup in his hand before setting it down to continue, "I declined because I'm getting too old to do those kinds of missions."

Naruto nodded and sighed, knowing that Sakura had in fact trained quite a few ANBU. She was a renown medic in the shinobi world. But he didn't know the extent of it because he was practically thrown out of the loop as she practically deleted the blonde from her life.

Sasuke was still absorbing the information slowly. Why would he care? Everything she had been through had made her stronger. A bell chimed through the bar as an older man entered, seating himself on the other side of the bar and ordering a drink.

"Yeah, she's really grown up." A voice from behind them spoke; Naruto recognized the voice and realized it to be his lazy ass friend, Shikamaru, who happened to have dated Sakura for a brief time while they were in blackops training together. (Unknown to Sasuke.)

"Hey there, Shikamaru." Naruto said, waving a hand at the pineapple head manned who had a cigarette hanging lazily from the corner of his mouth, a habit he had obtained after the death of his sensei, Asuma. This struck a nerve in the blonde as well because for a short period of time, Asuma had been a sensei to Naruto as well.

"Hey guys." He acknowledged, plopping down beside Kakashi, who offered a simple 'yo' with a small hand wave as he usually did with everyone else.

"What brings you to the bar?" Kakashi questioned, watching the dark haired youth put his cigarette out on the smooth surface of the bar before turning to the silver-haired Jonin, handing him a scroll that Kakashi had known was coming since he left the pub.

He noticed the white coloring of the lining and his eyebrows rose as he faced the Nara heir, "A-ranked?"

The lazy man just shrugged before disappearing through the bar doors with a lazy wave goodbye, Naruto, nosy as usual lent over just before Kakashi snapped the scroll shut, all he knew was by the white color of the lining that it was an A-ranked mission, which practically meant that you'll _probably_ die.

"We're leaving on a mission tomorrow morning." Kakashi spoke, and if Sasuke were a cat his ears would have perked up at that moment, but he was too bust acting aloof. Naruto on the other hand was about to jump out of his skin, it's been forever since he'd been allowed on a mission!

"What are we doing? Something exciting?" He bounced around in his seat, former sorrows forgotten.

"We're accompanying Sakura's team on a mission. That's all I know. But we leave at dusk. Get plenty of sleep." He spoke, not looking at his students as he paid his, and Naruto's bill before disappearing through the doors of the pub without a trace but the hell over the door.

Naruto turned to ask Sasuke what Kakashi's problem was, but it seemed he had left too.

The blonde slouched down in his seat with a sigh.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o 0o**

**Quick update. A bit short, next will be longer, I just wanted to get the plot started.  
If you're reading, please review, I'd like to know what everyone thinks and perhaps even get some common criticism. **

**- TobiIsMyName**


	3. A Lesson in Loyalty

_**Price of Blood**_

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO****.**

_Chapter Three: _**A Lesson in Loyalty**

"**Lady Haruno?" **The stern voice of Momichi came as he greeted his captain, she nodded in acknowledgement. He didn't expect much more from the woman, he had known her to be this way. Tsuchi and Tora were stretching, and the older shinobi joined them.

Izaya was sharpening his weapons while Choji checked the team's communicators. The sun was just barely beginning to rise at the gates of Konohagakure and Sakura silently admired the warm weather, she had been traveling the nations over the past five years and silently mourned over the loss of Konoha's constant summer temperature.

They didn't adorn their usual blackops uniforms, but instead wore their usual clothing. Tora's long brown hair was tied into a tight bun atop her head; she wore a tan china doll dress with a small bird embroidered into its silky fabrics along with knee high boots.

Tsuchi adorned a grey flak jacket and standard forest green Jonin training pants, a pair of silver brass knuckles already in place as he stretched.

Momichi wore a simple tight-fitted black t-shirt, for an older man his muscles were massive and showed beneath the tight fabric, along with grey training pants, multiple scrolls attached to a strap that connected to a holster around his back.

Choji, his usual armor with the Akimichi clan symbol. His partner Izaya wore a black hoodie with sandy brown fur lining the hood, as well as tan cargo pants covered in multiple chains and pockets full of weapons and explosives.

Sakura, herself wore tight spandex pants that hugged her curves perfectly, knee high white heeled boots in stark contrast to the black of her pants, along with a snug black T-shirt that hugged to her almost desperately, a white belt hung to a slant at her hips, many holsters and pockets attached to it. Her long pink locks in a low hanging ponytail that touched the small of her back, her long bangs slanted across her forehead to the left, her viridian eyes sharp as she leaned against the gate, arms crossed over her chest, watching with pride as her team prepared, not showing any strain or complaints at being up at this ungodly hour after running a thousand laps around the village.

They each wore their headband wrapped around their thighs, all leaf insignia.

"Lady Haruno, why are we bothering with such a simple mission?" Izaya spoke, shoving the kunai he had just finished sharpening back into its pouch before he started on another.

Sakura simply shrugged and looked down at her wristwatch, it was evident that the mission report had stated that mission call was between 5 and 8 in the morning, her team had been here at no later than 4.

"It's an A-ranked mission Izaya, should keep us busy for a while." Tsuchi shrugged, taking a seat on the ground to begin sharpening the katana strapped to his side, an indifferent look in his bright green eyes as he offered a glance to Tora from time to time. It was no secret that the blue haired youth had taken a liking to the brunette four years his senior, although she was somewhat drawn back, timid, yesterday was the first time he had ever seen her cry, or speak a straight sentence without being forced to, she admired their team captain more than anything in the world, and their pink haired captain had taken quite a liking to the woman as well, and although the woman was a year or so older than their captain Sakura had been a mentor to her almost. Hell, she's been a mentor to all of them, they were, after all, practically her students.

"We have forty-five minutes… how about a quick lesson?" The pinkette suggested, pushing away from the tree, all of her subordinates ears perked up and they were at attention in under a second, all eager to learn something new, even in his old age, Momichi pounced on a chance at learning something new. They were all shinobi, after all.

"What today? Genjustu? Taijutsu? Strategy?" Tora spoke excitedly, which brought a small curl to the corner of the pinkette's lips.

**XXXXX**

Sasuke gathered all of his tools into a scroll before hiding it in a pocket within his sleeve. His inky locks still mussed from a nightmare filled sleep, although for once it wasn't about the massacre, partially the reason of his annoyed mood when he woke up, because his pink haired teammate was ever present in his nightmares.

He ran a hand through his raven spikes, closing his eyes and inhaling a deep breath. As he reopened them and stared into the mirror of the small bathroom in his one bedroom apartment, since his probation didn't allow him to stay at the compound, and truth be told, he didn't want to be there anyway. Too many memories rested within those walls.

A brief knock came from the door and he strolled forward, his footsteps graceful and deadly silent. He could sense his oaf of a teammates chakra signature from three blocks away, and as the door swung open, he was staring into the red tinted eyes of his blonde haired practical brother, dressed in his wrinkled orange jumpsuit, hair a mess, he looked like he had just woken up, and he probably did.

Sasuke looked down at his wrist watch, it was 6, an appropriate medium time he and the rest of team seven had agreed to, the stepped back and allowed the blonde to groggily slump into his home, heading straight for the kitchen. The Uchiha let out an annoyed sigh as he heard his sink running and a few moments later the microwave roving.

Does the dobe ever get sick of ramen? The thought of eating the dreadfully salty noodles so early in the morning made Sasuke's stomach churn as he made his way into the kitchen, staring at the dobe who was staring into the microwave like a zombie, slouched forwards with his arms dangling limply at his sides.

Sasuke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Naruto, that's not going to make it cook any faster." He sighed, but he had a feeling the dobe wasn't listening anyway, he looked like he was a walking corpse, but then he spoke up, his voice groggy and rasped.

"Do you think Sakura-Chan will forgive us?" He questioned. And Sasuke's eyes widened in realization that the Uzumaki dobe hadn't just rolled out of bed, he had lacked sleep just as himself, and by the puffiness beneath his eyes he seemed to have shed a few tears as well. Sasuke hadn't gone as far as to cry, it wasn't his fault the girls parents had done that to her. Everyone suffers loss.

The inky haired teen shrugged and shouldered his pack, "That ramen better be to go." he warned.

**10 MINUTES LATER**

Naruto tossed the empty ramen cup into a trash bin with a loud burp, seeing the clear disgust on his teammates face, but ignored it. Just enjoying the feel of being able to have the original team seven back together!

A pang of guilt rang through his body and he let out a sigh. He felt bad for Sakura, and he felt even worse that he never knew the burden she carried even if it was so blatantly waved before his face. But- Sakura had never really talked about herself, all he really knew was her personality, what she liked to eat and read. And his relationship with her had been so strained in the short amount of time when she was here, that he wasn't even sure that what he knew about her was even valid anymore.

He ran a hand through his spiked locks with a sigh; it was true that he still harbored an infatuation for Sakura. I mean- she was infamously beautiful, even Neji Hyuga had lusted after her for a date before he settled down with TenTen. Although the only one she had a brief relationship with was Shikamaru, because they worked together a lot. She might have even reconsidered a relationship with Naruto and chose a different path, had it not been for that fight…

The memory resurfaced in his mind before he could push it down, like he so often tried to do.

_The stars looked beautiful tonight, the blonde noted as he made his way to team sevens old training grounds, he was bored and felt like taking a walk, it's not like he had much to come home to anyway…_

_He heard a soft sobbing and paused in his tracks, wandering if someone was wounded, but the closer he listened the softer the cries turned to whimpers and he began to panic, recognizing the voice to belong to none other but Sakura-Chan. _

_He slowly neared the whimpers until he found her- sitting on __**that **__bench. The stone bench Sasuke had left her on the night he left, her shoulder length locks veiled her face, her hands placed over her eyes as she cried, cried tears for Sasuke. A pang of jealousy rose in his chest, but was overcome with sadness, sadness at seeing her cry and sadness over the loss of his raven haired teammate, whom he considered a brother._

_He slowly neared her, she must have heard his footsteps because her head shot up, and teary viridian eyes met a nearly startled blue. A sad smile curled at her lips as she wiped her tears, standing from her seat on the bench. Naruto reached for her, wanting to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that he had made a promise to bring Sasuke back, and even that it hurt him that she loved the inky haired teen a way she didn't love him, he would keep it or die trying. _

_But as she came to stand next to him, her bangs slipping forward to shield her eyes, she spoke something he never expected to come out of her lips, "He's not coming back, Naruto. Give up already." It was a tone he had never heard her use before, a bitter, age-weary voice that Kakashi used when he was at his lowest, a voice Naruto knew well, one he never expected to come from the mouth of the pinkette, considering out of everyone on team seven, she had it the easiest by far._

_Naruto felt a heat rise in him he had never felt towards his teammate before, not Sakura-Chan, never her. He had had a bad day and hadn't slept right in weeks, since Sai, Yamato and himself had infiltrated Orochimaru's base and found Sasuke there… where he slipped thorough their fingers once again, he spun on his heel and grabbed the slender girl by the wrist, not forcefully, he would never hurt Sakura-Chan no matter how mad he was, but he couldn't just let her walk away. Too many people had been allowed to walk out of his life already._

"_How can you say that! You said you loved Sasuke, was that all a lie? You don't abandon people you love." He spoke lowly, watching her green eyes turn to slits, his stomach dropped and he realized he may have just made a huge mistake in their friendship._

She yanked her hand away, and the look in her eyes said Naruto had overstepped a very evident line. "That's the problem, Naruto. You _**don't**__ walk away from the people you love. Can't you see? Sasuke left all of us behind, he isn't being forced to stay with that bastard Orochimaru! He's there because he __**wants **__to be there! Are you too stupid to see that?" She snapped, tears sparkling in her eyes. _

_Naruto shook his head defiantly, refusing to loose faith in his teammate, he was taught that those who abandon their village are trash, but those who abandon a comrade are worse than trash. "Do you not care at all? Is that what love is to you? 'It gets too hard so give up'? If so, I'm glad you never returned my feelings." He snapped, too much in a blind fury to understand that the words that just escaped his mouth were of dire consequence. _

_Her eyes widened for a moment, and he opened his mouth to apologize for stepping over the line, when he felt a harsh sting in his cheek, he placed his hand there, turning to stare at her in bewilderment, sure, she had knocked him on the head from time to time, but never slapped him, not like this, not with this much contempt in her eyes. _

"_How __**dare**__ you! Sasuke left me out here, on a bench. He left our team, our village, joined a man whose sole goal is to destroy our home, where all of our friends and family reside! He- He tried to kill you, and if he would have succeeded I would never have forgiven him, I would have lost all of my team, my friends. So for you to sit here and tell me I didn't love him makes me sick!" She spat, and before he could stop her, she had disappeared in a swirl of pink blossoms. _

Naruto swallowed a lump in his throat, it was probably the guilt trying to suffocate him to death, and he wasn't going to deny that he deserved it after saying something so horrible to Sakura-Chan, after that he saw her maybe twice a month, the conversations they had were short and she seemed to have to force it.

Naruto himself was busy with studies on proper etiquette as a Kage, he never thought it would be so much damn paperwork or maybe he would have set his goals a bit lower, but it was his dream and he'd be damned if he let some papers stand between it.

Sasuke remained silent, he could tell something was bothering his teammate, but he was more than certain it was the same dilemma as he himself was stuck dealing with and didn't feel like conversing it with him. It nearly made him furious that she was so under his skin now, it had been easy to brush her off as a child, he was busy training and preparing himself for his path as an avenger, but now- it was as if she was forcibly being shoved into his mind without even working at it.

The raven haired teen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose at the painful headache weaseling its way into the base of his skull. He couldn't imagine another scenario that could be possibly more annoying than this.

Well- except getting to the gates and seeing Sakura and her team, covered in a fresh sheen of sweat and her looking attractive as hell in her tight outfit that actually looked nice on her, Sasuke hated the atrocious red dress she wore as a genin, but he also noticed she stopped adorning the white circle of her clan, well- he would too if his parents had sold him as a slave. She just got lucky that she wasn't some old man's sex slave by now.

The thought of Sakura sleeping with another man almost made his fists curl, but he assured himself that he didn't care. He had shared his bed with other women before, they were adults now, besides- she was a kunoichi, trained to use their bodies as a weapon of seduction, with the elite missions she has carried out along with the exotic beauty she yields she must have gone on plenty of seduction missions, as has every kunoichi.

The blue haired one- Tsuchi, or whatever turned to wave at the pair of men, Naruto returned the wave half-heartedly as Sasuke merely continued walking to join the group of shinobi, Sakura's eyes flashed to him and she nodded in acknowledgement, for some reason this brought a pang of bitterness in the lone Uchiha.

The two men felt a bit uncomfortable around their pink haired teammate, now that they knew of her checkered past the things that they had said and done to her seemed all the harsher. Naruto smiled and plopped down beside Sakura, who looked too busy inspecting a kunai the one named Izaya had handed to her.

"Good job, Izaya, good job." She smiled, handing the weapon back to the now blushing shinobi.

"So, you guys were on a team with Lady Haruno, huh?" The blue haired man questioned the pair of men, who gave him a curious look before Naruto nodded briskly. Sasuke chose to ignore him completely and went to checking the inventory in his bag.

"Really? What was she like?" The brown haired woman from the hospital yesterday questioned, Naruto's oceanic eyes shot over to Choji and offered him a weird look, he wasn't sure but- "Choji?"

The man whom he had been regarding offered a sigh and stood, coming over to sit by the group that had formed around Naruto, excluding Izaya and Momichi, who looked thoroughly uninterested in the new subordinates.

Naruto peered over the young man uncertainly, the red spirals painted on his cheeks- the resemblance to his father, yeah, it was Choji, but something was different… He tapped his chin in thought before an idea popped in his head and a grin cracked across his features "Hey Choji didn't recognize you when you weren't stuffing your face!" He chuckled, but then paused; remembering the youths short tempered actions after words concerning his weight.

But in fact, the man broke into a hearty laugh, "Yeah, I guess I've been taking better care of myself since Lady Haruno made me these." He grinned, rattling a clear bottle of capsules before the face of the blonde, who looked at the round orange tablets in confusion, Choji noticed this and continued, "They help restore lost energy and chakra, in fact, they don't have any side effects like most replenishing pills do." He finished, seeing the sparkle in the blonde's eyes he yanked the bottle back and shoved it into his kunai pouch just in time to miss Naruto's grab at the bottle.

"Whoa there, these babies are meant for someone a bit bigger than yourself." He boasted, straightening to full height, Naruto nearly feinted as he realized he was almost as tall as that monstrous old man, Momichi.

"You never answered my question!" Tsuchi whined loudly from behind the blonde, who now remembered why he had called the large Akimichi over in the first part; he raised an eyebrow to the larger man, "Why don't you ask Choji? He knew her too."

At that Choji offered another bellowing laugh, "Not nearly as well as you two did, I only saw her when she hung around Ino."

Naruto gave him a questioning look but turned back to the blue haired male, "Yeah, Sakura and I were on the same team." He spoke, noticing the flash of unreadable emotion pass through her eyes, and a pang in his heart.

Sakura stood, her bangs shadowing her viridian eyes as two figures arose from the distance, she turned to her team, now at her full attention, she tightened her headband and sighed, "I guess we should set off." Her tone was even but Sasuke could hear an underlying message in her words, something that said she didn't want the conversation between the blue haired male and Naruto to continue.

Naruto stood, but said nothing.

"Yo." Kakashi spoke, raising his hand in greeting; he didn't look as enthusiastic as the male next to him as the silent artist said nothing.

**XXXXX**

The air was tight as the group traveled, the only noises that echoed through the forest were the sounds of sandals meeting the bark of branches as Sakura's team of elites traveled ground as Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, Naruto, and Kakashi calmly fallowed from below, however the tension between the group was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Kakashi had yet to say another word along with the artist, but Naruto wouldn't settle for the uncomfortable silence and turned to the pink haired kunoichi keeping a great distance between her and the four males.

"Where are we going?" Naruto questioned, sick of the uncomfortable feeling between the two, he couldn't stand that they were all finally together and now it seemed Sakura wanted more space between them than they had already created, not just physical, she was making that very clear by staying ahead of the group, but an emotional space that was as if while she was physically here it was as if she wanted nothing to do with them.

"Suna." Sakura replied blankly, not in the mood for much talking, Truth be told she didn't forgive Naruto for his careless words that night, Nor Sasuke for leaving. The presence of the two males made her want to cry, but she hadn't done that since the night when Naruto found her on that bench, and she refused to be the crybaby once again.

Naruto seemed displeased with the answer but before he could open his mouth to complain Sakura cut him off, "We're going to be bodyguards to the Kazekage, namely you, Sai and Sasuke. Kakashi and I will be investigating some information while we're there." She spoke.

Sasuke watched from the background, he didn't miss the flash in Kakashi's visible eye or the resent in Naruto's, but said nothing. He could tell Kakashi wanted to say something more, but rethought it, confliction remaining in its wake.

Naruto paused, fist clenched in agitation. He was never one to hold his emotions in, he refused to start now.

"What the _hell_ is your problem Sakura? We're finally a team again, you've been gone for years and you come back and treat us like a burden!" He snarled blue eyes full of hurt and anger.

Sakura hadn't turned around the acknowledge him, but the sounds of footsteps paused; she had frozen in place, her face unseen by the men behind her.

"Sorry." Was all she muttered before she began moving once more.

**XXXXX**

Sasuke rolled his shoulder, closing his eyes at the soft clicks and pops of muscle, his dark onyx eyes studying his surroundings, the fat one and the old man from Sakura's team were scouting the perimeter, Kakashi was reading one of his pornographic books, the blue haired man looking over his shoulder anxiously as he noted that he hadn't yet read that book in the series. Two other members of Sakura's team were sitting and sharpening weapons that they never seemed to run out of. Naruto was sitting against a tree sulking, an odd look for him really, the inky haired male who gave obnoxious nicknames was sketching in some rectangular book. And Sakura, she was no where in sight.

Sasuke's eyes flashed to crimson as he scaled the area, not noticing her chakra signature he stood with an annoyed sigh, sheathing his katana. If anyone noticed him leaving the clearing they chose not to say anything.

Sasuke leapt into the treetops, his eye's glowing crimson as his sharringan searched through the area, it didn't use as much chakra as it did when he was a genin and it came almost naturally now. His sharringan was mixed into his genetics, it was a part of him, his body, his chakra passages, hell, his DNA was prepped for it's usage, all he had to do was hone his skills and-

What the hell was that?

His eyes flickered to a nearby tree where he could have sworn he saw a flicker of blue, a chakra signature, but he had to be mistaken, it was impossible to hide from sharringan, even masked chakra left a trace.

"Might I ask why you are following me?"

Sasuke (While he would never admit this to any living soul) jumped at the sound of a voice behind him, kunai in hand in under a second as he whirled around to face a very annoyed looking pink haired kunoichi, a hand resting on her hip, the other raised with a kunai twirling around her index finger.

Sasuke put the kunai back in his pouch, face stoic and eyes unreadable. "You weren't at the camp." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

She sighed and some of the tension in her shoulders seemed to drop. "I'm sorry. I thought I would take a walk, clear my head of some things." She spoke solemnly, her bitter attitude seemed to deplete from earlier, Sasuke preferred her without it anyway.

He offered her a nod and his trademark 'hn.'

Her features seemed to soften, and while she didn't look exactly happy, her eyes held a kind of acceptance, almost as if she was at peace. "Wanna' join me?" She questioned, at first her offer seemed like a bad idea, Sasuke didn't want to be fawned over obnoxiously as he had been when he was a genin, but as he over thought it- it seemed like a right time to apologize, simply because she was his teammate and he had wronged her unfairly.

"Hn." He nodded, she offered a peaceful glance and hopped from her perch on the higher branch she was once standing on, he did the same, watching the way her long hair fanned out around her from her pony tail, long hair looked… nice on her.

She shoved her hands into the pockets of her snug pants, emerald eyes not facing the raven haired man beside him. She felt bad for snapping at Naruto earlier- she just didn't like the look in his eyes when he arrived at the gates this morning, a look she never wanted to see directed towards her ever again- _pity. _

As they made a steady pace beside each other, the inky haired male noticed she began scooping up brush and twigs, he offered her a questioning look at the pile of twigs in her hand and she sighed, "I just thought some fire wood would be nice, it gets cold at night in this region." She replied, not as bleakly as before, but not as enthusiastic as before. He noticed her voice was still soft, soft and melodic; it had the underlying tones of maturity.

"Allow me to help you." The Uchiha male sighed, taking the pile of brush from her arms and settling it under one of his as he bent down and began collecting brush as well.

Sakura felt- at ease. Sasuke wasn't undermining her, and he wasn't as resentful as he was back in their genin days. It was a comfortable silence that settled over them. Sakura wouldn't go as far as to call them friends, or anything like, but- acquaintances was a nice start.

"Sakura?" Sasuke's velvety baritone voice spoke from beside her as she continued to add to the pile of wood in her arms, some even beginning to look like small logs.

"Hm?" She replied, not turning to look at him yet, as she was busy trying to balance all of the logs in her arms, it would be a shame if she'd spent all this time collecting them and they had all tumbled away, plus she didn't feel like giving Sasuke ammo to shoot her with later saying she was 'clumsy' or 'annoying' or something of that sort, she sighed at the memories of their genin days.

Sasuke strained to find a comfortable way to start this conversation, so he simply stayed turned away from the pink haired woman, continuing to pick up wood as to not make this conversation any more uncomfortable than it probably would be.

"Kakashi told us, about your parents, I am sorry." He spoke slowly, Sakura could hear his attempt to put it gently and while it wasn't the greatest of efforts, she did appreciate it.

"You don't have to tiptoe around the subject, Sasuke. I was young, it doesn't bother me anymore." She spoke softly, but Sasuke could tell by the sound of her voice that it was a lie. And she did as well- she had always wandered what her parents would be like, what they would look like, how things would have been if they would have kept her. She'd lost much sleep over it, in fact, but there was no use in dwelling on such things. Some people had it much worse, like having your entire clan murdered before your very eyes, or having a demon sealed within you.

"Aa." Sasuke replied, not meaning to be rude, and Sakura understood that. He just wasn't very good with words, even worse with apologies, but she appreciated his effort. This Sasuke was new to her, the Sasuke she would have liked much more when they were younger.

But perhaps its better he wasn't as kind during their genin days- it would have made his departure much harder. But in ways, she could understand why he did what he did. The guilt must have eaten at him, when she was younger she didn't look at it that way, and after encountering and fighting with his brother many times she could understand his frustration. She had also left the village- in her own way, to run away from her own problems, to busy her own mind.

Sasuke peered over at the pinkette, she looked deep in thought and he wandered if perhaps he had offended her by bringing up his parents. The subject itself didn't seem touchy with her, but she could have just said that. He couldn't tell with her anymore. He heard a wolf howl in the distance and looked up at the orange and pink sky, it was nearly dark, he opened his mouth to proposition that they be on their way, when Sakura beat him to it.

"Let's head back; I think we have enough firewood." She sighed tiredly, her viridian eyes cast skyward, Sasuke's eyes lingered on her a bit longer than usual; noticing how a honey colored hue touched her eyes, making it appear as if golden specks resided within the viridian, an orangish glow cast over her soft pink hair, she did look… very nice like this.

The walk back was silent, but comfortably so. Sakura hummed a light tune, and Sasuke simply enjoyed the sound of her voice, trying to look as aloof and calm as possible.

As they arrived at the clearing with firewood he noticed Sakura's teammates, as well as his own were rolling out their bed mats, if not already in them. The larger and older man known as Momichi seemed to be taking the position as lookout, because Sasuke could sense his chakra signature within the trees. Naruto seemed to notice their presence and slowly neared the pair, a sadness swimming in his eyes as he stopped before the pinkette.

"Hey, Sakura. Could I talk to you a sec?" He questioned, rubbing the back of his head, but it wasn't in the way he usually did, it was a nervous, sorrow filled way that made Sasuke sigh and lean over, scooping the rather large pile of firewood from Sakura's arms, noticing the questioning look she gave him, he inclined his head to the blonde before turning and walking away.

The pinkette turned to her blonde teammate, instantly feeling guilty at the way she had spoken to him earlier, and with a sigh she nodded, noticing the small flicker of happiness in his eyes and resisting the urge to crack a smile, Naruto was such a happy man, the life of a shinobi wasn't for a man with so much happiness and life.

As Naruto lead the pinkette out of earshot from the group of shinobi he sighed, taking on a shameful expression, eyes cast to his feet, Sakura noticed this and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, watching as Naruto's head slowly rose and his eyes locked on hers.

"Sakura, I'm so sorry-"

"Naruto," She intervened, "Sasuke told me, you have no reason to be sorry. How could you have known? I'm sorry for the way I treated you earlier- it's… it's just been a very long time since I've been able to let my guard down. If our line of work if you let your guard down, you die. You understand this just as well as I do." She spoke slowly, trying to be more considerate of her teammate's emotions, something she should have done from the very beginning, but was too selfish to do.

"You don't need to keep your guard up around friends, Sakura-Chan." He said, and before she knew it she was slammed into his chest, his arms wrapped around her in the comforting brotherly way that made you feel so happy, so comforted.

Sakura slowly returned the hug; she truly missed the comfort of the blonde. "I'm sorry I abandoned you, Naruto."

"I'm sorry for what I said, Sakura. I didn't mean it." He spoke softly, pulling back from the hug with a small smile. He really did miss her, she wasn't like the old Sakura-Chan, but he knew she was somewhere in there, Naruto was a shinobi, and even short missions can get you stuck in shinobi-mode, he can't imagine being on such a long mission and trying to revert back to normal life.

She placed a gentle porcelain hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry for what I said as well." Her smile was genuine and sweet, and brought a light flush to his cheeks, as he turned to walk around her back to the campground her sweet voice paused him, "Oh, and Naruto?"

"Y-yes Sakura-Chan?" He blushed, hearing the sweet as sugar tone in his voice, and as he turned around she practically glowed cuteness or maybe it was just the sunset.

"If you ever touch me without my consent again I'll kill you!" She snarled, and as he was flying backwards, blood flowing from his nose and a loopy smile stuck to his features he couldn't help but laugh,

"That's my Sakura-Chan."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o **

Please review, tell me what you think.

-TobiIsMyName


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